


The Invisible Hand

by weonvu (genisaurion)



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Death is a major theme but no main characters die, Eventual Romance, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-14 23:34:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29550078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/genisaurion/pseuds/weonvu
Summary: This story is set in a dystopian world, where people have no memories of those who pass away. One day, Wonwoo suddenly becomes an exception to the rule. Worse, because he no longer forgets those who die, he becomes witness to an even greater set of unseen rules governing his world. It isn't long before Wonwoo struggles to navigate a world where no one understands the new reality he is in, and a world where the one person who does understand him is also invisible to the world.
Relationships: Hong Jisoo | Joshua/Jeon Wonwoo
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	1. When He First Saw the World

_it was fitting, wonwoo thought to himself, that how everything began was also how everything was about to end._

_they were similar in that they were both characterized by death. he should have died (no, he_ did _die, wonwoo corrected himself) and he continued to avoid death. and as a result this stranger who had supposedly saved him was now at death's door. in his stead._

_they were also similar in the uncertainty of death. to this day, wonwoo still did not know why he had almost died that night. now, he did not know if this man would die, too._

_why had he almost died?_

_how had that man saved him?_

_how could he save him?_

_wonwoo desperately raked through his memories. from when he first regained consciousness, to when he and this man had first met, to their first encounter with the invisible hand..._

_where was his answer?_

_what could he do?_

* * *

The first days had been a bit of a blur.

Wonwoo's consciousness slipped in and out on those days. He had fleeting memories of his parents crying at his bedside. They had asked him many times what had happened, why "this" had happened to him. He also had fleeting memories of them asking the doctor. At first, Wonwoo thought he just was not staying conscious long enough to remember the doctor's answer. But, as the days passed, he came to realize the doctor had no answer to offer his parents.

He... he also did not know. At least, he did not think so. Wonwoo began to spend his conscious moments trying to find his answer.

However, none came.

As the days passed, his family spent most of their visits in silent prayers—likely, hoping that Wonwoo would soon wake up. The friends who visited him did not seem to mention any details, either. Mingyu seemed borderline hysterical and was perhaps more desperate for answers than even Wonwoo was. Soonyoung and Jihoon, meanwhile, had slowly convinced their circle to take revenge on Wonwoo's behalf.

One memory stood out to him, though. Before falling asleep, and right as he woke up, Wonwoo was sure there was a man standing at the foot of his bed. A man wearing all black, with a hooded sweater covering most of his face. A man who never spoke when he visited.

At first, Wonwoo wondered if he should fear this visitor. Perhaps if he tried hard enough, he could muster enough effort to force himself out of his current semi-conscious state and get out of harm's way. But as the week that passed, his opinion had changed.

If anything, the man became a source of constancy and gave him comfort.

* * *

The days that Wonwoo was first officially "awake" were also a bit of a blur, but for different reasons. There was a lot to catch up on, and most of the information he was trying to process did not make much sense to him.

For example, the doctors had told him he'd been found unconscious in an alleyway, and he'd lost so much blood that they were surprised he'd even made a recovery. Yet, they had not found any signs that he'd been stabbed or shot, nor did the x-rays reveal anything that would point to excessive internal bleeding.

"And the blood was for sure mine?" Wonwoo asked. Though, if it hadn't been his, that would probably open more questions than it answered.

The attending doctor nodded solemnly. Apparently, the blood samples from the scene were his and his only. There were no signs from the scene that anyone else had ever been there.

Why had he been in that alleyway in the first place? How had he lost all that blood, if his body seemed perfectly fine otherwise? And, if he _was_ fine, why had he been unconscious for so long?

Unfortunately, Wonwoo did not have much time to think about it. He had a full-time job to return to, after all. His boss had been understanding of his situation, thankfully, and over the next few days they'd worked out a teleworking arrangement. However, most of his projects had moved on without him, and when he wasn't in meetings he spent his workdays playing catch up with his clients. That meant he spent most of his nights catching up on his work.

To top all that off, he faced the constant onslaught of concerned, good-intentioned family members and friends who would not leave him alone. They meant well, yet they also were overbearing. 

Wonwoo was tired. And so, very quickly, he lost his curiosity about that whole ordeal and, as a result, also forgot about the strange man at his bedside entirely.

* * *

Things eventually eased up, though slowly.

One month had passed before Wonwoo formally made plans with his friends. It was about the time he felt sufficiently caught up at work, and about the time he could make it through a gym workout without feeling exhausted. Though, if Wonwoo was being honest with himself, the plans had only come together because of his friends' persistence.

Still, he was glad he made it out. They were a comfortable group. Mingyu was the most candid of their group, and he always seemed to be making sure everyone was taken care of. He was also a year younger than the rest of them, which was what earned him the name "mini" hyung. Soonyoung, who had come up with the nickname, had a vibrant and sunny disposition of his own, though in his own way. If Mingyu was warm, then Soonyoung was bright. Finally, Jihoon was more moderate, perhaps closer in personality to Wonwoo than the others in their group. He was not afraid to give his friends a reality check when they were in need of one.

True to character, and aligned with his hazy memories back when he was still at the hospital, Mingyu was the most concerned about Wonwoo's well-being and why Wonwoo had found himself in that incident in the first place, Soonyoung was shocked that Wonwoo had no drive in finding out the perpetrator or in seeking revenge, and Jihoon seemed the most puzzled for why Wonwoo had no memory of what had happened at all.

"And they found no signs that you were stabbed? Or shot? Or—?"

"Nothing," Wonwoo said to each of their guesses, chuckling at the faces Mingyu made the cruder Jihoon's scenarios became. He had covered those bases himself. Once, when he was younger, he had passed out from standing up too quickly, but many of those health issues had not aged with him into adulthood, and especially once he started to work out more diligently. Plus, none of those incidents had ever concluded with him passed out for weeks in a pool of his own blood.

"That part puzzles me the most," said Jihoon. "No wounds, no internal injuries, yet excessive bleeding? Don't those things contradict each other?"

Wonwoo shrugged—which, apparently, Soonyoung had feelings about.

"I can't believe how uninterested you are about all of this," he said. "I mean, at least get the police involved if you don't want to be bothered yourself!"

"The police are bothersome, too," Jihoon muttered.

Wonwoo silently agreed. It was not that he was uninterested, though. His life was just moving too quickly. Keeping up with work, paying the bills... those obligations would not wait for him to investigate questions that seemed logically impossible to solve.

"Look," began Wonwoo, "I'm okay now, aren't I? It's been more than a month now. If something comes up, I promise to let you all know. I'll try to respond to your texts more. I'll even let you all walk me home for as long as you want. Would that make you all feel better? I just... can't keep holding onto this thing I barely remember. You know?"

"This thing," Soonyoung scoffed, though it was the lone remark from any of the three.

A long silence proceeded, but eventually his friends relented. Soonyoung, who was the last to concede, stood up to go to the men's room. Mingyu had taken Wonwoo into a hug, apologizing on everyone's behalf for making him have to relive that incident again. Jihoon said nothing, except to politely remind Mingyu that Wonwoo couldn't relive something he did not remember in the first place.

The rest of the night passed without further questions, with the exception of Mingyu asking about the health of Wonwoo's grandmother, who had been recovering from a recent stroke. (She was okay, at least for now.) And as promised, at the night's end, Wonwoo let Mingyu accompany him on the subway ride home.

As they said their goodbyes to Soonyoung and Jihoon, Wonwoo could not help but feel relaxed at how normal everything was starting to feel again.

So complacent had he been, though, that when he and Mingyu arrived the subway platform he almost missed the sight of a man leaning against a distant wall. He was unfamiliar in all regards except his black sweatshirt, whose hood conveniently cloaked his eyes. Their distance made it hard to tell exactly, but Wonwoo's instincts were telling him that the man was definitely watching them.

Or... or him? Maybe he was watching him, specifically. Wonwoo wondered whether he should be concerned.

"H-Hey," Wonwoo began nervously, tugging at Mingyu's sleeve to get his attention.

Mingyu did not turn immediately, instead distracted by the arrival of their train and ensuring where they stood matched where the train's doors would open. Unfortunately, by the time Mingyu turned, the platform flooded with passengers, and the strange man had vanished.

* * *

Only late into the night did Wonwoo put two and two together.

This man at the subway station... was the same person as the man at his bedside?

He was pretty sure of this, the more he thought about the possibility. But it also opened so many more questions, which was problematic since that same night he vowed to not pursue the matter any further.

Still, why was this man always watching him from a distance? How did he seem to know where he'd find Wonwoo? And why did Wonwoo not know who he was?

Maybe this man was the one responsible for him being in the hospital, Wonwoo thought to himself. Maybe he was following Wonwoo in order to finish the job.

Though, Wonwoo figured it could just as easily be the reverse. Maybe this man had saved him?

While Wonwoo was undecided on which identity he thought was more likely, he did come to one conclusion before falling asleep that night: If he ever saw this man again, he would definitely confront him.

* * *

To be clear, when Wonwoo had said he'd "definitely confront him," he'd been envisioning something much farther into the future. In fact, he would've been just fine if the opportunity hadn't come back at all.

That their next meeting would be the very next morning—in his own room, no less—was far from what Wonwoo could have ever expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As a fun fact, I binge watched The Untamed for the first time, and for some reason that compelled me to write this. In other news, I'm not sure if I'll ever be the same person again.


	2. The Man Unseen to the World

Wonwoo could not believe what he was seeing.

He neither screamed nor panicked. Actually, his first instinct was to convince himself he was still dreaming. After all, there was no way this man could have slipped in through the front door (he was sure he locked it), and there was no way he came in through the window (he lived on the 12th floor of his apartment building). Not to mention, Wonwoo only had fleeting glimpses of this man, in instances that couldn’t have been a mere coincidence. Therefore, this man had to be a figment of his imagination, right?

But he was very real. Wonwoo could hear the man’s breathing, and as the man approached the edge of his bed, Wonwoo could feel the man’s weight as he seated himself. Instinctively Wonwoo sat up and straightened his posture.

“You're finally awake,” the stranger spoke, nearly at the same time Wonwoo asked, “Who are you?”

The stranger gave no immediate reply. During that time, Wonwoo took the opportunity to observe the man’s appearance. He’d never been this close to this man before, as their past meetings had either been in the dark or when Wonwoo was only half-conscious. While it was debatable whether he’d fully woke up yet, it was certainly brighter with the morning sun streaming through his windows. He hated it on most days, but today he was thankful.

The stranger was dressed in nearly identical clothes from when they saw each other the night before at the subway station. The stranger’s black leather pants first caught his eye, particularly around the thighs where they tightly hugged his legs. In contrast, the man’s black hoodie had a looser fit, though they could not hide the man’s broad shoulders.

As his gaze continued to travel upward, he realized the man was not wearing the hood. For the first time, their eyes locked and Wonwoo had a proper look at the stranger's face. Wonwoo was not sure what he’d expected, honestly, but the face he was met with was not cold, or scary, or any other adjective fit for a stranger who had broken into his house. If anything, the man had a rather pleasant expression. His eyes, though, were currently a jet black color, and for some reason Wonwoo found himself drawn to staring into—

“Do you know now?”

The man’s words effectively cut Wonwoo loose from his daydream. He was back in his room, in bed, with his confusion and questions scattered across his bedsheets.

“Honestly, no,” Wonwoo admitted. “But we met last night, didn't we?”

The stranger gave a subtle nod.

“Before then, too” he said. “I visited you in the hospital several times.”

“Pretty regularly, from my memory,” Wonwoo remarked. He hadn’t meant it as a joke, yet for some reason the comment had made the stranger chuckle under his breath.

“Is that so?” the stranger asked.

Wonwoo didn’t really follow, but he nodded.

“That’s good. And you can see me now?”

Wonwoo nodded again, though once again he wasn’t following.

“Am I... not supposed to see you?”

Wonwoo briefly wondered if his suspicions had maybe been right after all, that this man was only in his head. But then again, the weight on his bed was very real. Just to convince himself, Wonwoo reached forward, and though the stranger instinctively pulled away, the two had made enough contact for Wonwoo’s fingers to brush against the man’s sweatshirt.

He was real, then.

Perhaps sensing Wonwoo’s confusion, the stranger bowed his several times, as if silently apologizing, before he stood up from the bed.

“I think it’d be better to explain if we went for a walk.”

* * *

The morning sun had been misleading, as it turned out. Inside, the sun's rays had felt warm, yet outside it was terribly chilly. The moment Wonwoo stepped out of his apartment he immediately regretted taking up the stranger’s suggestion.

He didn’t let it deter him, though. Sure, it hadn’t even been 24 hours ago when Wonwoo convinced his friends that he would let go of his past. But that had also been when Wonwoo had no logical leads. And sure, Wonwoo had no answers from this man, either, yet Wonwoo was at least convinced that he had them.

Honestly, there were many obvious signs even before their walk and conversation had officially begun, if only Wonwoo had known to look for them. For example, the stranger did not seem to like opening doors, and he also insisted on passing through doorways before Wonwoo. He also seemed to ignore every neighbor they had passed by in the hallways. When Wonwoo assured the stranger they’d greet him too if only he presented himself more familiarly, the man gave no comment or signs of amusement. In fact, the stranger didn’t engage in conversation at all until they had walked for several blocks.

“Please don’t interrupt me until I finish,” were the man’s first words. Though Wonwoo thought it a strange request, he obliged nonetheless.

“Sure, as long as you promise to answer my questions by the end.”

The stranger nodded, and with their agreement in place, he exhaled before beginning to speak.

“You can call me Joshua. And as you suspected, yes, only you can see me.”

Wonwoo opened his mouth to dispute Joshua’s claim, but remembering his promise, he bit his tongue and let the other man continue.

“Well, that’s not totally right. There’s nothing special about _me_ specifically. It's maybe more accurate to say only you can see _us_.”

Joshua’s story seemed to only be introducing more questions rather than providing answers, but Wonwoo did his best to keep silent.

“To say it outright: we’re what we call the invisible hands, because most people can't see us. We’re very real, though, and live amongst you all. Honestly, I’ve known you for at least five years now, though we obviously haven’t had the chance to talk until now. But why is that, you’re probably wondering? And why only now can you see us?”

Wonwoo knew the answer. The timing of everything was just too coincidental. But because of their deal, he let Joshua answer his own question.

“It’s because you were at death's door. And specifically, it’s because I saved you.”

...but Wonwoo had not expected the second half of that response. He paused in his stride, turning to Joshua with a wide-eyed expression. He did not immediately ask his questions. But it must have been clear he was dying to ask, because after a moment Joshua nodded and broke his story to allow Wonwoo to speak.

“So you know what happened to me, then?” he asked.

Wonwoo was met with yet another surprise when Joshua shook his head.

"Sadly, no. I can't remember any of the details."

“Why the hell not? How can you say you saved me but not remember any of it?!”

Wonwoo realized, though maybe too late, that he had probably come off too strongly with this last question. Pursing his lips as an afterthought, he lowered his head and had begun to offer his apology, but before he could admit to his frustration, Joshua had placed a hand on his shoulder.

“It’s fine,” he said. “You don't need to apologize. It’s hard to explain the world I see, and I promise to share my world with you as best I can. It’s hard for me too, but I owe you that much.”

“Sorry, I won’t interrupt,” Wonwoo said again, and Joshua also shook the apology off once more. After meeting gazes and assuring Joshua he was fine, they resumed their former pace.

“...the real reason we are called the invisible hands,” Joshua continued, “is because we’re responsible for mitigating feelings of loss. Without their knowing, we help people forget about people who pass away. In some ways, we’re more similar to a grim reaper, except we deal with the people who remain.”

Wonwoo would be lying if he said each turn their conversation took was stranger than their last. As ludicrous as it sounded, though, there was a grain of truth he couldn’t help but agree with. Wonwoo knew the concept of death, but he couldn’t name one person he knew who had actually passed away, nor did he have any concrete memories of anyone he knew for sure was no longer with him.

Joshua, who seemed to have paused his story again to give time for Wonwoo to process, continued after a moment.

“That’s the life most people lead. They only remember the living, and when they die, they too are forgotten. Those are the rules of the world, so that grief doesn’t weigh heavy on people’s hearts, and it’s our job to enforce those rules. That’s important because... well, it’s now the opposite for you. Because you’ve experienced death yourself, you also can now recognize death. That much is evident if you can now see us. In other words, from now on, you probably won’t forget the dead like everyone else.”

Wonwoo nodded absentmindedly. It was definitely a lot to take in so suddenly, and he kept thinking of new questions before he could get one answered. But perhaps the biggest question weighing on his mind right now was...

“You experienced death that night,” Joshua said, slowly and more quietly, as if echoing the thought that had been swirling in Wonwoo's own head. “You did die, and I saved you. But because you died before you gained the ability to remember death, you probably can’t remember anything about what happened that night.”

“But how do you know for sure you were the one who saved me if you can’t remember, either?” Wonwoo asked.

At this, Joshua fell silent. Wonwoo did not mean to sound accusatory, and he hoped he hadn’t come across as such. Honestly, as crazy as Joshua’s explanation had been, it seemed to check out more than anything else he had tried to come up with himself.

“I’ll... tell you another time,” was the response Joshua finally gave. “If you’re willing to trust me, I mean. I know I’ve told you a lot so suddenly. I never expected to be able to ever tell you any of this. But... we also are bound to our own rules, and I want to make sure I tell you the right way.”

“And telling me all this isn’t against your rules?” asked Wonwoo, mostly as a joke. But according to Joshua, it hadn’t been. Wonwoo figured it was maybe because there was never supposed to be someone who could interact with invisible hands in the first place.

...It definitely felt weird to Wonwoo to refer to Joshua as an “invisible hand.” He needed to think of a better name.

“We should maybe head back,” said Joshua after some time. “I’m sure you have a lot to process, but I do want to answer your questions later if you still have any.”

“Thank you,” said Wonwoo. He did have many, many, questions. But in that moment, he blurted out the one question most salient in his mind: “do you also get cold? Aren’t you freezing?”

Perhaps it was because of the serious nature of their conversation up to that point, but Joshua could not help but to laugh at the outburst.

“I do,” he said with a wide grin. “And I am. Hopefully you’ll let me warm up in your apartment for a while."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3, "The World That Man Saw", coming soon. Thanks for reading!


End file.
